52 
EXAMINATION OF CALIF ORNIAN CINNABAR. 
lessor Hofraan for analysis, at whose suggestion the following ex- 
amination was undertaken : — 
"The mine of New Almaden is situated in Upper California, 
near Santa Clara, on the coast, not far from San Francisco. It is 
the property of a company of English and foreign merchants, and 
is leased to a company of the same kind. 
It has been in active operation for about six or eight months. 
The vein is very large, and ' crops out • on the surface, where it is 
worked. The metal is extracted from the ore in two ways : 
" First, by a series of large iron cylinder- retorts, heated in fur- 
naces, and discharging their produce into water, where the metal 
is condensed. 
" Secondly, by brick furnaces, in which the fuel (wood) is in- 
termixed with the ore. By these operations, the ore gives from 
30 to 45 per cent, of its weight of mercury. 
" The mine produced in the month of November, 1850, not less 
than 127,500 lbs. of mercury. 
The ore as exhibited in the specimens sent, some of which 
weighed as much as 14 avoirdupois lbs, has a bright red color, 
slightly inclining to purple, and appears to have been imperfectly 
cleared from a soft, light-brown earth, which can easily be scraped 
from its surface. It breaks without much difficulty under the ham- 
mer, and is afterwards easily reduced to powder, with the excep- 
tion of some bright crystalline particles, which are extremely 
hard. 
The surfaces of recently broken ore appear much more purple 
than those long exposed. It is traversed at irregular intervals by- 
very thin bands of w 7 hite, hard crystalline material, apparently 
calcareous and siliceous. When in the state of fine powder it has 
a very brilliant vermilion color, many shades darker than the mas- 
sive ore. Its sp. gr. is 4.410. 
In a preliminary examination, it exhibited the ordinary pheno- 
mena of a mercurial sulphide associated w T ith siliceous matter. A 
portion of the ore was digested w T ith nitro-hydrochloric acid, and 
the insoluble residue separated by filtration. 
The solution examined by the usual methods contained mercury, 
sulphur, iron, alamina, a trace of nickel, lime, and magnesia. 
The part insoluble in acid consisted of silicic acid, and very mi- 
nute traces of lime and potassa. 
